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Wednesday 6 December 2017

Hotstar Named in Most Entertaining Apps of 2017 by Google Play

In another big win, Hotstar, India’s leading video streaming platform, has been named in the Most Entertaining Apps of 2017 by Google Play, the largest global app store for Android mobile devices.

Google Play’s Best of 2017 is the annual round-up of the best performing consumer applications across categories such as entertainment, productivity, gaming, fitness among others. Being the largest app ecosystem in the world, with over 3 million available apps, each category is hotly contested with products from the world’s best technology developers.

Since its launch, Hotstar, the first Indian app to cross 100 million downloads on the Google Play Store, has racked up multiple industry accolades such as Apple TV’s App of the Year and has been featured on every list of India’s most downloaded apps.

Impressively balancing the twin challenges of supporting traffic from millions of daily users, while still pushing the platform towards a world-class user experience, Hotstar has placed special emphasis on creating a personalized viewing experience, so as to help users smartly navigate through hundreds of thousands of hours of content.

To underscore its leadership in live sports, Hotstar has also made big investments towards providing users a sports experience that not only provides analysis, but also allows users to track and re-live the highs of the match in a communal experience with millions of other users. Innovations in content, coupled with Hotstar’s consistent efforts to keep the app data-light, have ensured that Hotstar is often a new mobile data user’s first app.

Google Play’s Best of 2017 was announced on 1st December and the detailed list of winners can be viewed here.

Thursday 30 November 2017

This Week Bitcoin Price Hits $11,000, Etherum touched all time high of $522.31

Bitcoin hit another record high on Wednesday. The world's most popular cryptocurrency surged past $11,000 for the first time, even after reaching $10,000 the night before. The recent rally in bitcoin price can be attributed to increasing interests in digital currency for both investors and institutions. According to Bloomberg, Nasdaq Inc. plans to introduce bitcoin futures as early as the second quarter next year, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. In October, CME, the world's largest derivatives exchange, also announced the launch of bitcoin future product this year. Glance Technologies Inc. (OTC: GLNNF), HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (OTC: PRELF), Riot Blockchain Inc (NASDAQ: RIOT), Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTC: GBTC), Overstock.com Inc (NASDAQ: OSTK)

Bitcoin Surged to $11000 this Wednesday, before dropping to below $9500


The cryptocurrency market is experiencing significant growth this year. Bitcoin is up over 900 percent this year. Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, also hit an all-time high of $522.31 on Wednesday, according to CoinDesk. The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies now reached $300 billion. According to CNBC, hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz said on Monday, "Bitcoin could be at $40,000 at the end of 2018. It easily could…Ethereum, which I think just touched $500 or is getting close, could be triple where it is as well."


Glance Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: GLNNF) also listed on the Canadian Stock Exchange under the Ticker 'GET'. Just earlier today the company announced breaking news that, "it has entered into a non-binding LOI to acquire the blockchain and cryptocurrency with rewards tokenization platform Blockimpact from Ztudium Limited, a company founded and led by leading blockchain influencer Dinis Guarda. Ranking.influencer.world ranks Mr. Guarda #4 worldwide in Blockchain and Crypto.

The LOI contemplates that Glance will acquire all of the intellectual property comprising the Blockimpact platform in consideration for payment to Ztudium of US$1.1 million, 80% of which will be paid upon closing of the acquisition and 20% of which shall be paid on completion of the integration of Blockimpact with the Glance Pay mobile payment platform. Glance has paid Ztudium US$100,000 towards the purchase price.

Glance intends to utilize the Blockimpact cryptocurrency platform to accelerate the creation of its rewards based cryptocurrency, which is also intended to be implemented on the Glance Pay platform. Glance hopes to complete the Blockimpact acquisition within the next 15 days and then work to integrate the Blockimpact blockchain technology with the existing Glance pay mobile payment network architecture. Completion of the acquisition is subject to the parties negotiating and entering into a binding agreement for the acquisition, on the satisfactory completion of due diligence by Glance, and upon the approval of the transaction by Board of Directors of Glance. Ztudium has agreed to a 30-day exclusivity period during which it will not negotiate the potential sale of Blockimpact other than with Glance.

Closing of the acquisition is further conditional upon Mr. Guarda and other members of the Ztudium management team responsible for the development of Blockimpact entering into a consulting agreement with Glance on terms satisfactory to each of Glance and the Consultants pursuant to which Guarda and the Consultants will assist Glance with Glance's adoption and use of the Blockimpact platform, in planning and executing Glance's planned rewards based cryptocurrency strategy, and by introducing Glance to blockchain experts, influencers and partners.  
"We are selling the Ztudium Blockimpact platform at a significant discount to what we believe is its true value because we are extremely excited about the opportunity to apply our team and technology to the Glance Pay rewards cryptocurrency," says Dinis Guarda, "We feel strongly that there is a large potential for this in the marketplace and we feel the combinations of our teams, technologies, and marketing capabilities are unmatched in the cryptocurrency space today," added Guarda.

The Glance rewards based token will be granted as rewards to users of the Glance Pay mobile payment app every time they spend on the Glance Pay mobile payment network, whether they have paid with the new cryptocurrency or via other payment methods. This strategy is intended to support rapid adoption of the cryptocurrency to a broad range of consumers, although the app will also be marketed to crypto users in leading urban centers. Glance also intends to apply elements of its anti-fraud technology to cryptocurrencies to reduce the risk associated with converting traditional currencies to and from cryptocurrencies…"

Tuesday 28 November 2017

Asus Zenfone 4 selfie Pro review: Stylish selfie expert or overpriced player in the race?

Asus has launched a plethora of devices under Zenfone 4 series this year and one of such devices is the Zenfone 4 Selfie  Pro. As the name suggests this device has its USP in the selfie camera or should we call cameras as the device comes with dual selfie camera. The Zenfone 4 Pro selfie is priced at Rs 23,999/- . So does the device justify the price tag or its an overpriced player in arena of 'Selfie Experts' ? Let's find out.

Specifications at a glance:

The zenfone Selfie pro is powered by time tested Octa-core Snapdragon 625 with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. The Zenfone 4 Selfie pro comes with 5.5 inch Full HD AMOLED display which has brightness of 500nits and clor gamut that's greater than 100% of NTSC color space as claimed by company. The display is crisp and can handle any type of content with ease. Even in outdoors on bright sunny day the display is readable and bright enough. The Zenfone 4 Selfie pro comes with a 76.7% body to screen ratio, however competitors in similar price segment are coming up with full view display now.



The phone comes with a finger print sensor on the front which is claimed to unlock phone in 0.2 seconds. We can say that finger print sensor is fast and accurate and we didn't faced any issues while using the device.  Zenfone 4 Selfie pro comes with 3000 mAh strong battery with Fast charging support. The charger supplied with device has a rating of 10W (5V/2A) rating. 

On camera department the Rear camera is a 16MP Sony IMX351 Sensor, which supports 4K video recording and comes with ASUS own SuperPixel Engine. On Front there are are two cameras for selfie , the first one features Sony IMX362 dual pixel image sensor that is said to be equivalent of 24 MP resolution camera. The 24 MP DuoPixel camera technology uses the information captured by the sensor to intelligently create one 24 MP photo. The second sensor is used to widen your frame area, i.e. it expands your view to upto 120 degrees which is best suited for group selfies.

Design:

The Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is a sleek and stylish device which feels premium when held in hand. The device sports a rectangular metal unibody design with rounded corners. On the front of the device 2.5 D corning gorilla glass protects the 5.5 inch display. On top of the display there are two selfie cameras to the right of the ear piece and array of sensors to the left of ear piece. On the left edge of the device there is a SIM tray slot which can be ejected using the pin. The SIM tray can hold 2 Nano SIM cards and a micro SD card (upto 2 TB is supported). On the right side of the device you get volume rockers on the top and power button just above the middle of the edge.



Bottom of the device houses speaker grill, micro USB slot, mic and 3.5 mm audio jack. On the top edge there is just another mic (probably noise cancellation one). Turning the device on back, Antenna lines are visible on the top and bottom of the back panel. The Rear camera is sitting in middle horizontally and towards the top vertically with a flash light placed just the left of the Camera unit. In the middle of the back ASUS branding is visible.



Camera:

The frond camera works well in normal mode where there is enough light. The images are sharp and colors are natural. Sometimes images are overexposed when you are using front camera in sunlight. The low light performance is mediocre and images become bit noisy or blurry. 

There is a portrait mode as well in front camera which works pretty well. In group selfie mode the secondary 5 MP camera comes into the play and increases your view area. In view finder one can observe that switching to group selfie mode the edges resembles that of fish eye mode. The selfie camera is also capable of shooting 4K videos which will be useful for Vloggers specially. 

The back 16 MP camera does its job as expected and doesn't disappoint. The images from rear camera are detailed and clear in bright lit areas however in low light the images are grainy and not something we were hoping for with this camera. The images loose detail as soon as the light source is diminished. The autofocus of the camera works fine and quickly locks the focus on object in frame. The image processing is quite good and images are rendered in real time without any noticeable lag.

Below are few samples from the camera.

Low Light (Rear Camera)
Artificial Light (Rear Camera)

Day light (Rear Camera)
Group Selfie Mode (front camera)
Normal Mode (Front Camera)


OS and Apps:

The Zenfone 4 Selfie pro runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat with its own ZenUI 4.0 skin on the top. Thankfully Asus has listened to our pleas and this device is as neat as you would want in terms of applications. The only app on board are the required minimal set of apps to get started without any bloatware. The UI experience is fluidic and smooth. We didn't noticed any lag while opening multiple apps. In settings we have an Asus customized settings option where in you can enable twin apps feature for accessing two accounts on apps like Facebook and Instagram.

Final Verdict:

This selfie expert has great build quality and hardware strength. The phone has got most of the things on the right side. We are happy that Asus has not compromised on the hardware or quality in this device. The camera features are in line with the competition, however the competitors are offering features like full view display at lower or similar price. If you are looking for a decent camera phone with smooth UI experience then you can opt for this phone. For other uses there are still options in market at lower price. 

Thursday 23 November 2017

Nokia 2 with '2 Day Battery Life' launched in India for Rs 6999/, will be available from Nov 24

HMD Global, manufacturer of Nokia Smartphones has today announced launch of Nokia 2 in India. The phone will be available for Rs 6,999/- from 24 November in leading retail stores. It comes in three colours in Pewter/Black, Pewter/White and Copper/Black. 

Nokia 2
Nokia 2
The main highlight of Nokia 2 is its claim to offer 2 days of battery life backed on its massive 4100 mAh battery, which makes it direct competitor to Redmi 4 which comes with same battery power. The device also relies on its simplistic design and pure Android experience apart from 'The Nokia' brand to attract customers.

Nokia 2 comes with a 5-inch 720p display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, the device is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 processor combined with 1 GB RAM. Nokia 2 comes with 8 MP rear camera and 5 MP front camera. The phone comes with 8 GB internal storage which can be further expanded using microSD card.

Nokia 2 runs on pure stock Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box with a promise to get update of Android 8.0 Oreo very soon. 

Ajey Mehta, Vice President and Country Head - India, HMD Global, said: “Nokia 2 is a smartphone
that is built keeping the Indian consumer in mind. It is a smartphone people can rely on without
subconsciously rationing their battery usage. Every component of the Nokia 2 – from the display to
battery, chipset to system design – has been engineered to draw as little power as possible from the
huge battery. This gives fans a long-lasting phone they can rely on. In addition, a great display and
pure, secure Android means you don't have to do less with your Nokia 2 to preserve longevity, it has been built to give you the freedom to do more."

Jio customers can enjoy additional 45 GB 4G Data on Nokia 2 i.e. 5 GB additional 4G data on every recharge of Rs. 309 or above, limited to 9 recharges till August 31, 2018. All Nokia 2 users will be eligible for a complimentary 12-month Accidental Damage Insurance by Servify on opening the Kotak 811 savings account and activating it with an initial deposit of Rs 1000/- in the introductory period.

These professionals are walking ahead by adopting online learning

Two things we often hear about the today's world is - it's moving at a speed like never before and change is the only constant thing. I think we all agree that these phrases are true for every part and person of the world irrespective of origin or location.

We human beings have always been the change initiator and also the ones who have to cope with the changes - be it technological advancements, new processes or a modern strategy to win over your customer. However, this fast-paced environment becomes the reason for decline of many organizations and individuals who fail to cope with the new paradigm. 

Organisational goals are met by collective efforts of individual employees, thus it is important that employees of an organization possess the right skills to adopt and master the change rapidly. Sadly, sometimes employees who fail to upskill themselves are handed over the infamous pink slip.

Now competition is not limited to schools, colleges or colleagues - it is you versus you. What you are now and what you can become after acquiring the right skill sets. It is about adding medals on your jersey by reinventing yourself. Here comes the challenge - why do you think people don’t invest in themselves to get more skills? If you think it is about college education or financial aspects then you are wrong. It is more about the mindset or lack of support. Besides, there is a tendency that when you are well settled you don't need to go that extra mile to add an extra arrow to your quiver. At times, non-availability of the right courses and engaging facilitators do make a difference. Whatever be the reason, you risk stagnating your growth when you don't add to your skills at the right time. Thus, we have to evolve with the market trends and requirements to provide a fillip to our career.

So how do we do it in an efficient way? First, we need flexibility to learn from anywhere. Second, we need someone to monitor our progress, answer our queries and colleagues to gain from healthy discussions. Pretty much what we get in classroom trainings, but without having to move an inch and wasting time and resources in reaching the place, without waiting too much time for feedback or clarifications. To address these issues, Talentedge  has come up with its unique SLIQ 2.0 platform powered by AI.

Talentedge brings you courses from reputed educational institutes such as XLRI, MICA IIM Kashipur, among others. Talentedge has partnered with the best institutes for these courses that are structured and carried out by their esteemed instructors. The SLIQ 2.0 platform helps students to attend live classes, ensures they are meeting the attendance criteria, and provides interactive features to ask questions, interact with faculties, students and group for any updates, clarifications and queries.

With the help of Talentedge, you can watch yourself grow in your career. To testify this effectiveness, we have a few videos of students who have completed their courses and are happy to share what feat they have achieved after upgrading themselves.

Nidhi, a working professional enrolled for course 'Televised Event Management and Production', says that learning through Talentedge was really superb and it helped her getting an Internship at Global Citizen Concert. She shares how the modules, presentations and other learning materials have helped her overcome challenges encountered in her professional journey.

Rohit Gaharwar, who has completed course on "Strategic Performance Management" from XLRI, shares similar views. He describes the course content to be well structured and compiled to cover all aspects. He shares that the faculty is excellent with good knowledge and command over the subject, which has helped him to get to the depth of the subject. He doesn't miss appreciating Talentedge for providing him with the platform and for the all-device- compatible application that enables students to be in touch with the relevant updates as well as a mechanism to make sure a student gets right notifications at the right time.

So now you know that you don't have to risk your existing jobs or quit it to take a course and upskill yourself. You can just find it on Talentedge and enroll yourself so that you can grow professionally without having to worry about your current priorities and schedules. 

Talentedge CEO Aditya Malik adds “We had students who have come back to us after doing a course from Talentedge and were explicit in telling us how this course has made a big difference in their professional lives. Not only were they able to up skill themselves, they even gained more confidence while dealing in bigger forums. This helped them see the broader prospective of business. And the best part was, with the help of Talentedge and its online courses, they were able to take a career leap in their professional lives without even disturbing their work schedule.”

So, if you are still wondering – Why Talentedge? Read on.

Talentedge is a unique platform and probably the first tech-ed platform in India with Live and Interactive sessions, chat facility for students to raise any query at any time, AI bot to answer your queries and a Student Relationship Management team to assist you further in any kind of queries. The courses are from well-reputed institutions and taught by eminent faculty members who are really experienced and supportive. The course duration, structure, modules are appropriate for each course and appreciated by the students. So what else you need from a facilitator when it has more than what you have expected? May be it is time for me to look for something in Digital Marketing or Data Sciences and take a course from Talentedge, what about you?